Archive for October, 2006

Look! I finished a scarf! Maybe now, I can work on giving Vita a mate!

The details:

Pattern: My own. Knit on the horizontal with 250 stitches (I wish I did 300).
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Brown, Mist, Tan and Evergreen (no more than one skein each)
Needles: 47″ US 7 Addis. (I’d have used size 8 or 9s if I’d had a long enough needle)
Size: Somewhere around 5 feet. But it’s thick, so that makes up for length in my mind.
Time: Began Friday night, finished tonight, so, 4 days.

This scarf is for one of my friends. I’m not sure if he’ll like it, but I’ve been told that it’s his colors, so I hope that’ll count. It was super easy and I love the results (I thought about keeping it for a while), but I’m not in any hurry to jump into garter stitch anytime soon. Also, I almost ran out of the green – I was worried that I’d have to undo most of my bind-off and the row before, but I was fine. I had just enough left over for the fringe. Is a fringe too much for a man scarf?

Anyway, it’s one scarf down. One Christmas gift off the list (and a stash-busting one at that. Did I mention that. Yea, I’m trying to do as many gifts as possible via stash-busting). One happy feeling packed away for experiencing in December. I am so on top of things this year. I can handle knitting for about EVERYONE I know. Right?

Vita: Qvuite varm actually. This fair-isle get up is grrreat for varmth. It’s vooly and two-layerrrie. Qvuite nice indeed. It suits me, I think.
N: Now, you just walked in the door. Have you sized up yourcompetition yet? What do you think your chances are?

V: I’m pretty skeptical to be honest, but not because of the competition, no, no. The Chrrristmas knitting vill definetly be an obstacle to finding my future mate. There are 2 pairrrs of socks on the list- that’s 4 socks total – and so farrr, only vone sock is 1/2 vay done. It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure.

N: Is the Christmas knitting the only thing you’re worried about?

V: There’s also the issue of my heel. Beforrre I got some emergency duplicate stitching, I had a gorrring, gaping hole. I’m still a bit scarred. I feel imperfect. Attepting to create my mate might mean failure again. But, alas, I want someone to share my bed vith on those cold, vinterry nights. I need a mate.

N: But don’t you think your pattern is an asset?

V: Oh, yes! Each inch or so, both my color and pattern changes. That’s so interesting and exciting. The only problem vith that is the excitement von’t be as fresh and new vith my mate. You know, “been there, done that, got ze t-shirt.”

And really, it’s hard to people to see past my Norwegian trophy beauty. There’s character inside me. Talent. More than meets the eye if you vill.

N: Well, that’s all we have time for today, Vita. But thanks for taking time to talk with us today. Best of luck in finding what you’re looking for.

I don’t ask for help very often. But I need it. What is a good way to do short rows?

This photo is the result of 4 attempts at the heel as described in the pattern (otherwise, a ver fun and excellent sock) and I finally got tired and frustrated – so I just stuck with what I got. I’ve never doen short rows before and so for a first attempt, I’m semi-satisfied. What you see in the above photo will not be ripped because I don’t want to rip back so far – and I’ll just see if I can do some duplicate stitch magic… finangling if you will.

Anyway, I’m looking for an online tute about short rows – a really good one with lots of photos. Can you make any recommendations?

Here’s another photo for your viewing pleasure… (see, fair-isle is pretty and complicated, and I can do it. I’m still a good knitter right?)

I got a package from my Secret Pal! I was so excited to see a package slip in my mailbox the other day – but even more excited when I opened the box to see the spoils! Such great stuff… It’s some alpaca and silk yarn and both soundtracks from Grey’s Anatomy.

I’m uber excited about the CDs because I can play them on my long drives home for the holidays. And of course, the music from Grey’s Anatomy is freaking amazing.

I love the yarn too! It’s my favorite color (I always, always love greens, I don’t know why). Initially, I considered a pair of gloves – but gloves get dirty – and shine to this yarn is too precious to waste on gloves. So now I’m thinking a pretty lacy scarf. There’s just short of 300 yards, and I’m thinking the scarf seen here, but I’m open to suggstions… got one?

I think I’m really going to love this secret pal thing. And I think I may have the best secret pal ever… Thank you secret pal!

Today, my post is an apology – to you, my readers, but first to my Redwood Forest socks.

I’m sorry I doubted you, oh socks of pooling.

Let me explain. As you may remember, I hated the way that these socks pooled. HATED it. But since they were so quick and easy to knit (I knit the second one in 3 days flat), I just kept going. I said that I was going to abuse them as a punishment for being so ugly in their poolingness, and abuse them I have.

You see, I’ve worn them probably 80% of the time I’ve worn socks for the last 2 weeks. I’ve been so busy wearing them (and doing other stuff) that I haven’t washed them as often as I should have (they’re getting a good soaking right now – but no, I won’t tell you how many times I’ve washed them in a 2 week period. It wouldn’t be enough and you would think less of me). And they’ve felted. I love it.

The stitches have completely melted into each other on the heels. Look at this – they hold their shape when my foot isn’t even in them! And they are so comfortable! And warm (this cold and wet streak of weather we’re getting here in Bloomington – I’m not at all likeing it) and I keep reaching for them everytime I have to brave the weather – or just want my toesies to feel comfortable and snuggly. Plus, I have this idea that if I keep wearing them, they’ll continue to felt (a reasonable assumption, no?) and then they will be like a glove to my feet and will be even more comfortable. It’s starting to happen to the toes/pads of the socks….

Everytime I’m done wearing them, I look at the latest abuse I’ve inflicted – and oh, how I’ve abused them – but so far, they’re wearing very well. I’m enjoying them far more than I ever thought I would! It’s enough to make me forgive these socks and this sock like and continue to push forward on the fly fishing colorway. It’s enough to make me give an above average grade to Knitpicks Memories sock yarn. It’s enough for me to be seriously tempted to buying a new colorway…(and 32$ worth of more knitting stuff in order to get free shipping).

My other apology is about all the boring posts lately. I hate memes and things subtly camoflaged to look like something other than a meme – I think they’re boring a cop-out to real, interesting blogging. But I had to, secret pal and all (I love you secret pal!) – but, the point is, interesting posts ahead–including a very special sexy single sock and a new series (poking fun at moi and my idiotic knitting mistakes).

As you may (or for you newbies) or maynot remember, the worst experience that has ever happened to me as a knitter was this summer of mold. The jist of the story is that my airconditioner in the room I was staying in this summer grew mold and contaminated almost everything in my room including much of my yarn stash. You can read more about it in this post here, and you can read what I did about it here.

So why bring this up again? Everyday, when I look at my stats, at least one of the searches that brings people to my blog has something to do with mold. One person had mold under the floor in her boat. I get lots of searches with the question “is mold bad for you?” I find some comfort in knowing that I’m not the only one with this problem.

Anyway, Bryony emailed me the other day because she too was having mold problems. She agreed to let me post her question and my response in order to help future google searchers. She writes:

I’ve been reading about your horrible mold issues thanks to Google and I
wonder if you could offer me some advice.

I live in a very old stone weaver’s cottage that is built into the side of a
hill, and the back of it is the only place that gets hit by the sun (which
unfortunately is the side built into the hill). Because of this, and a
problem with water pipes , we have issues with moisture levels in the house. We have a dehumidifier, which does a great job, but until we can afford to have some more work done, and get the bathroom and the pipes replaced, we are a bit stuck with it.

Unfortunately this kind of makes things a bit difficult with my knitting
habit (as you have already discovered, sadly). My yarn is fine. The WiPs
are ok because they are washed at the end of knitting, and my stored yarn is kept in locking plastic crates, so the yarn is quite happy, has never smelt
musty and comes out the box fresh as a daisy 🙂 My books are luckily fine
too.

My issue is with my needles. I prefer bamboo to metal or plastic, and
while I’m knitting with them they are fine. Even needles left to one side
for a few months stay fresh and clean. However, the set not in use I’ve
kept for the last year in a felted needle case, and these have serious
problems. For the second time I’ve noticed they have mold on them. The
first time, I cleaned them with anti mould cleaner, and most of it brushed
right off, without any staining. I also sprayed the case with
anti-bacterial Febreeze. Apparently that wasn’t enough 😦 I’m ordering a
new set of bamboos from ebay to minimise the transfer of mold, and my
beloved case will have to go 😦

What I would like it know is – did you have any problems with your needles? If so, have you been able to do anything about it like treat them with something to protect them? I’m already thinking of moving my stash upstairs to somewhere more airy and dry, so that I only keep WiPs in the living room, but I’m not sure how to store my needles to keep them safe and dry. Given that I don’t have the opportunity you did (i.e. moving!) to resolve your problem, do you have any advice you can offer? I’ll be keeping the dehumidifier on quite a lot at least!

Many thanks in advance
Bryony

As someone who enjoys knitting with bamboo needles, I’m glad that I didn’t have any of these issues. Here’s my response:

I haven’t yet noticed a problem with my needles – I was only in the moldy room for 3 months and so I think that might be a factor – also, a lot of my needles are plastic or aluminum (as much as I love the birch and/or bamboo).

However, I do have a few suggestions for you – First – either toss your needle case or give it a long soaking in some Kookaburrah. In the course of my cleaning, I had to throw out a hand-quilted pillow that had a ton of sentimental value for the relationship I had with my mom – the mold was deep inside the stuffing and I just had to let it go – washing didn’t do any good. This had to be one of the worst parts of this whole thing – throwing away something that I valued as special.

Exposing your needles to the moving air will be helpful. (in the course of my crisis someone told me that it’s warm, wet and extremely stagnant air that mold loves the most) – Since I love looking at my needles, I’ve never had them stored in a needlecase – I store them in a vase where I can see them everyday. My circulars hang (from one of those circular solution things), also in the open air. I’d recommend that you first clean your needles – soak/wash the non-porous ones (plastic, metal) in a solution with some bleach (make sure you rinse off the needles really well afterward) and seriously wipe the wooden ones with some Murphy’s oil soap and maybe some Kookaburrah just to be sure. Then, you may want to think about doing what I do (at least for the interim) and store them in a vase – an advantage to doing it this way is that you could put a bunch of rice in the vase – this could suck the moisture out of the needles you have (preventing mold from growing) and make sure they stay dry in your apparently wet house.

Howdy!

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